


Stay Beautiful

by WhoknewZeus



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: AU, Cake, Fluff, M/M, One-Shot, living below a band, not much to tag about this one, songfic in a way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 14:10:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2231916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoknewZeus/pseuds/WhoknewZeus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simple AU: Luke moved into a new apartment, but he was unaware that he was going to live below a band. A certain bassist from the band was watching him when he first arrived, and he instantly crushed on the boy. Calum Hood, the bass player in his band, made it his mission to make Luke fall for him now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> I got bored, and I really wanted Cake lately, but no one really has written anything for that pairing. There are a FEW, but it remains at an eehh with me. So, here's a Cake story for y'all's (mainly for my own entertainment) that is based on this wonderful music video I saw a while back. It was by The Last Goodnight and the song was Stay Beautiful (Which is why I titled this story Stay Beautiful). Please enjoy the story as much as you can! Sorry, if it is crap or something

For the first time in Luke Hemmings' eighteen years of life, he was moving into his own apartment. Monday will be the day he would remember as the day his life begins; an apartment that was far from his family and close to an available job for him at a local convenient store. It was not exactly the best job in the world like an astronaut or a marine biologist, but it was a job that was going to hire him. The pay was obviously not going to be a large amount, but it was going to be what got him through with his necessities .

If you are wondering if Luke is going to college or going for some type of higher education, he is not. He always felt inferior to most students back in high school, anyway. Besides, Luke didn't want to compete against others when he did not know what he wanted to do with his life. He needed at least a year to himself before he would decide whether going to college would really be his ticket to a successful and fulfilling life.

"Here it is, kid," a man's voice broke Luke's daydream in the cab. Luke realized what the man had said and nodded his head, handing the man the money for his trip.

As he shut the cab door behind him and dropped all his belongings, Luke gawked at the wide, towering building. Its walls had many blue-painted columns hoisting the structure, but the shade of blue that was picked was awfully bland. Not bright blue as the sky Luke was having and not dark blue as somebody's foot with frostbite. It was a gloomy, boring shade of blue. There were steel bar balconies outside of each apartment window. It looked like if somebody dropped something smaller than the gap between each bar, then it would get an instant fate with the cement floor that Luke was standing on.

If the complex had to bear resemblance to anything, it would resemble an ominous, haunted building from a horror movie like  _See No Evil_.

Nope. There was no way Luke was going to creep himself out of living in his new apartment after paying for the room and everything. He may have exaggerated the reference, but he still shouldn't scare himself like that. He was going to stay and think positively.

He hoisted his belongings and entered through large doors that were same austere color as the columns.

Up above in one of the second-story balconies, there were two guys crowding the edge to see their new neighbor. One particular male had dark hair, and a few tattoos on his left arm. The other male had fading green hair crossing his arms as he rolled his eyes at one of his best friends. The said friend that the green hair male was rolling his eyes at was smiling at where Luke was last standing.

"Ashton, he's checking out the new kid!" The green hair walked back inside.

"Wow, Calum! Just wow," Ashton replied. "Stop looking at eye candy and let's practice, Cal!"

"Yeah, yeah," Calum retorted, smiling to himself over the new cutie that moved in.

Meanwhile, Luke entered his apartment for the first time. It was spacious and quite bigger than what should be considered an apartment. Luke was used to being pretty close to the ceiling because of his height, but the ceiling in his new environment was so far up that Luke would need a ladder to touch it.

Luckily, some of his stuff back with his parent's was delivered before he arrived at his new home. He was able to keep his bed, guitar, drawers, lamp, and pillows.

He carelessly dropped his backpack and bags before jumping on his welcoming bed. It was what was going to remind him of his home when he smelled the fabric softener his mom used. Immediately, Luke felt homesick. Moving his body into a fetal position, he quietly clutched the bed sheets as his heart wanted to go back to his mother's arms.

Suddenly, a drum beat was coming from above the ceiling. Luke thought it was strange but then he started hearing a bass guitar strumming and someone tapping their feet upon the engineered wood flooring. Was there a band living in the apartment above from Luke's? It was not like he mind, for he enjoyed a good tune from time to time. He even played the guitar himself. He was just worried about the other residents around him because they would probably complain about the noise and report it to the landlord.

Luke sat upright on his bed with his head looking at his new ceiling like there was something to observe about a few bars that were painted over in milk-white along with the rest of the surface of the ceiling. In other words, Luke was blankly staring at a big white wall.

" _Even when the sky is falling_ ," a male's voice permeated Luke's room. " _Even when the earth is crumbling 'round my feet_."

"What the-"

" _Even when we try to say goodbye, you can cut the tension with a knife_ ," more lyrics were being sung, but Luke was fascinated by the particular choice of words for a song.

The band above him certainly was something of a pop rock genre with something else to it. Luke just didn't know what it was exactly, but he liked it. It was unique and quite catchy when the chorus was blasting through his ceiling.

He might as well set his place up while there is a free concert playing. Before the second verse was sung, Luke was hopping around his place setting up posters of his favorite musicians, actors, actresses, and a few celebrities on the brick wall behind his bed. It baffled Luke why he had one distinct wall made entirely out of bricks while the others were just drywall.

By the time Luke finished unpacking and placing his things in the correct places, the sun had already went down. Luke noticed that the band was quiet. The band stopped using their instruments, and the singers stopped their unique voices. Luke was honestly disappointed they stopped, but he got a free concert. He almost forgot there was a band playing above still since it felt like he was playing his iPod out loud. Except that it wasn't his music playing because it was the band above him. Perhaps he'll go check them out one day.

* * *

By Thursday morning, Luke had adjusted to his new schedule. He would go to work every single day but Monday and Saturday. He will receive his first paycheck by Sunday, and it will start all over. Luke also took note that the band stopped playing after Luke's arrival, which was Monday.

If he assumed correctly, they would play again on Monday since bands should have a regular time to practice together.

Luke was prepared for work and locked his apartment door. He calmly jogged down the stairs to the main entrance, so he could go attend his job at the cash register. When the blond left the building, Calum watched him walk away from his balcony. Michael opened the window and knew what Calum was doing. Michael interrupted his best friend's creepy session, "Being a stalker isn't a good way to introduce yourself to your crush, y'know?"

"Oh, shut up, Mike," Calum chuckled, turning to face Michael. "I'll make him notice me, just you see."

"Okay, Mr. Stalker-Hood, have it your way," Michael sighed, returning back inside to leave Calum. "You wanna practice now?"

"Nah, I wanna wait until new guy gets home," Calum retorted, following Michael's lead. "I want to see if he will try to knock on our door."

"Weirdo," Michael remarked, hopping on the couch with Ashton to watch  _The Walking Dead_.

As they relaxed altogether, Luke was awfully stressed out by an overweight lady. She kept claiming that her wide collection of coupons were not expired, and she purposely wanted to make Luke look like the one causing problems. If that were the case, she would be able to get free stuff as compensation. He told her over and over that the expiration date on the pieces of paper were past their date. He even pointed to her the expired date to her pudgy face.

The manager soon came over to see what was holding the line up. Luke explained thoroughly on what was going on, and the lady refuted his statements with her own. The manger read the labels on the coupons she wanted to use and saw that they were past their date.

"These  _are_ expired, ma'am," Luke's manager politely stated. The large-sized woman grumbled and gave up trying to think of something to defend her claim. She ended up paying the full price and made a few crude remarks about the store.

Luke's eyes surveyed the floor, obviously guilty that the woman had to pay for everything without a discount. His manager patted his shoulder and told him with a bubbly energy, "Don't worry! There are some customers that try to outsmart the cashiers here. Now, help all these people, Mr. Hemmings!"

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Luke walked like a penguin because his feet were killing him, and he'd been standing most of the day. He had the morning and afternoon shift, so he was exhausted. The blond still needed time to adapt to his job since he lived most of his life rent-free and jobless. All thanks to his parents, of course.

Calum sat on the balcony, watching the male gloomily and warily enter the complex building. Now, the question was if he wanted to have band practice when his crush was worked to the bone.

"Canceling band practice, boys! I'm not feeling it tonight," Calum directed, hearing no disagreement from his best friends/roommates.

Ashton and Michael never left the couch unless it was for the bathroom or snacks. Michael stared at his curly-haired drummer, "He's really trying to provoke the new kid to bang on our door and complain about the music."

"Eh, he's Calum. Calum will be Calum, always have been and always will be," Ashton retorted, scratching his chin hairs while he surfed through random channels.

"I'm going for a shower," Calum uttered as he walked to their bathroom.

Their apartment's living room consisted of one TV, a couch. It was not much because they usually turned their living room into a concert for their neighbors. They just invited everyone in the complex to see them perform for free, and it would help them get experience for live gigs. Since they were kind enough to do that for their community, they didn't complain about them practicing during the day or night. Most of the residents were young adults, anyway.

Unless you're Luke, then you are completely concerned over the neighbors trying to bust the band for public disturbance. You fear for the band's safety despite knowing nothing about them except that they play decently and have good singers. Other than that, you know nothing about who played the bass, drums, or if there is just a singer that just stood there and looked awesome. That was how Luke felt.

So as he stares at the ceiling while in his bed with his boxers and shirt on, he became genuinely scared that maybe the neighbors already spoke to the band about the ruckus. What if they moved out and the time Luke heard them was their final performance together? Luke had no right to intervene into people's business, but he would be lying to himself if he said he was fine not hearing the singer's voice again. There was certainly something about the singers voice that made him want to go upstairs and see who the male was.

As you can tell, Luke was passionate about music. He wanted to pursue his music career just like the band above him if he was not afraid of the possibility of not succeeding and telling his parents that he failed. The blond should have took his college applications and completed them, but he also had a problem where he relentlessly deterred himself from trying to be higher than someone. He didn't like people that much and inevitably became a recluse. Ironically, he was working at a convenient store as a cashier.

"Go to sleep, Luke. Stop worrying over other people that don't know you exist below them. Literally," the blond told himself, flipping his pillow to the cooler side.

* * *

Saturday morning, Luke was boiling himself some tea to relax on his day-off. He usually made coffee since he had to wake up early and report to work. Today, he was going to relax on his bed. He couldn't afford a couch or TV, so his day was literally going to be boring. At least he was able to truly enjoy the silence and scroll through his Tumblr in relaxation.

After grabbing his mug with the tongue-burning tea, he brought it over to place on top of his drawer next to his bed. He made himself comfortable and scrolled down his screen on his laptop. He reblogged a few funny gifs and reblogged a woman catching knives with ping pong paddles as a guy throws them at her. There was some serious craziness in that post, but he liked it.

If it weren't so quiet in his room, he swore he would be able to ignore the singing that was beginning to enter his room. On the bright side, the band was not confronted by some ancient lady with a cane and living with five cats to keep her company. The song was different from the last, but Luke analyzed the lyrics regardless. " _You're coming close now, swear I can taste it. You got me tongue tied, and I can't escape it."_

"Well, ain't that cute?" Luke commented, knowing that they wouldn't be able to hear him. "But isn't there some weird sexual innuendo behind that?"

" _And everybody wants to take you home tonight, but I'm gonna find a way to make you mine."_

"You could just leave the pretty lady alone," Luke shrugged to himself, still aware that his comments were invisible to the group above him.

It might have been too presumptuous to guess that the song was directed towards a female, but most songs made by bands that consisted mainly of guys were always directed towards a special girl or in general. It still had that catchy chorus like the last song Luke heard. He wondered if they have their songs on iTunes or somewhere public, for he would like to purchase their album.

However to Calum as he was singing his verse, he was hoping for his crush downstairs to come up and see the Kiwi. He had to provoke his neighbor just enough to get him to notice the obnoxious band playing every time the said crush had a day-off. If you asked Calum why he couldn't just ask Luke, he would probably just say that the standard approach was boring to him. He wanted to  _amaze_ the blond that he would instantly love Calum forever.

Okay, maybe not exactly  _forever_. Just long enough so Calum can settle down and have adopted babies with his crush. Okay, maybe Calum didn't exactly think out what he was going to do afterwards, but he was focusing on trying to get his crush to come upstairs and see him personally.

Calum Hood did not like complex things, for he was a simple man. Stopping himself from thinking any further, Calum kept singing with more emotion in his words than usual. His band mates rolled their eyes as they completely saw the endeavor Calum was inputting for his new crush. Michael and Ashton had a bet whether or not the new kid will really see Calum. Michael was for certain that he was going to win an average amount of money from Ashton, though.

* * *

It became Monday again. A full week of Luke living in his new environment. He was slightly adapting at his job, but he still hadn't visited the band upstairs. He woke up warmly with his body wrapped in the blankets like a burrito.

There was a knock on his door, which is something that never happened since he started living in his new apartment, so Luke walked over to see who it was early in the morning. He was immediately confused when he saw a male with bleach blond hair and an eyebrow piercing. A band tank-top and black skinny jeans, Luke made a few assumptions at that moment. The punk rock-ish person spoke,"Hi there! You must be the new around here since me and the boys know everyone on this building."

"Um, I, I just moved here a week ago," Luke retorted, rubbing the nape of his neck.

"We're having a live concert tonight in our own room upstairs," Michael stated with a sly smile, pointing his finger to show Luke that he was in the band living above the blond.

"Oh, well, I can't go-"

"It's free!" Michael urged, trying to persuade the other male to come. "It's only for the residents that are living in this building. There's a reason why me and the boys know everyone here. That is, except for  _you_."

"Oooh," Luke left his lips in a circle, contemplating if it would be fine to attend. "I would like to, but I have work tomorrow."

"Really? Sucks ass for you," Michael remarked, "can I at least get your name first? First and last, please."

"Okay," the taller male mumbled, "I'm Luke Hemmings."

"Michael Clifford," Michael chuckled as he took Luke's hand and shook it. "See ya around, Luke!"

Luke shut his door, wondering if he could risk precious sleep hours to see Michael and the rest of his band preform tonight. Michael was trying to speed the meet-up. Not only because he would earn money out of it, but he wanted to rub it in Ashton's face so bad.

* * *

Ashton smacked his drumsticks together three times, and then the two guitarist started strumming to a rhythm. They extended their instrumental part at the start of the song because Calum wanted to announce a few things to the large crowd in their living room. "Heyyoo, everyone! This song is  _Besides You_ , and I want you all to sing the lyrics with me, alright?"

"Yeah!" The crowd shouted back.

Calum flashed his famous smile, winning the hearts of a few hearts of the females in the audience. " _Within a minute I'm all packed up. I've got a ticket to another world."_

The audience recited the next lyrics, " _I don't wanna go! I don't wanna go!"_

Meanwhile, Luke was sleeping perfectly before the music was playing. He tossed and turned, struggling to resume his dream as a baby penguin wobbling to his parents. The blond's eyelids twitched as the people cheering and chanting became louder. With his eyes opening wide, he stared at the ceiling with contempt because it was disturbing his penguin dream. Far too lethargic to tell them to turn it down, he tried to go back to sleep.

" _Besides you~_ " A voice that was Michael's but particularly someone else's voice. There seemed to be a lot of people stomping and making the ceiling screech that Luke was unable to sleep. It was important that he woke up early and attend work, or else he would have a tough time trying to keep up with the rent.

" _She sleeps alone. My heart wants to come home."_

How oddly parallel the lyrics were to Luke's position. Nothing but his white tank-top and penguin boxers, Luke was pretty much living a lonesome life. Is that how fan girls feel whenever they think the lyrics are specifically for them? Luke laughed to that thought and shook his head.

" _She lies awake. I'm trying to find the words to say. I wish I was, I wish I was besides you~_ "

"Okay, whoever is singing, you must have set up a camera in my room somewhere before I moved in or something. You cannot be this accurate with lyrics." Luke remarked, freaking out that there might be some device recording him in his room, and the killers would just burst through the door and murder him on his bed.

Nothing left to do but go upstairs to talk to them personally, Luke thought. He proceeded to get dress, pulling up his black skinnies that he set to the side. He put a sweater since he was insecure to enter a crowded room with only a tank-top. He slipped on his red Vans and locked his apartment. He walked to the stairs and prepared his mind for socializing.

* * *

The band reached an instrumental part of the song and gladly took it as a breather for them to rest their voice. Calum scanned the every person to the best of his abilities, but no  _Luke Hemmings_.

Everyone in the room was barely past the height of six foot. It shouldn't be that hard to find a giant.

"Calum! The chorus is coming, stop being distracted!" Ashton yelled while avoiding speaking into his microphone.

"Shit, fine."

At that exact moment, their door opened and Calum saw a particularly tall blond male. He bumped and apologized to the people around him, but the New Zealander liked those type of people especially. The bassist knew it was time to really put his feelings into the words and sweep away Luke with them.

"Let's go, boys!" Calum exclaimed into his mic.

Luke was not that far from the band, and he saw all of three of the musicians. A man with a bandanna tightly wrapped around his forehead was beating the drums to their song. Luke remembered Michael clearly, for he thought the strange male was trying to flirt with him. When in reality, Michael was setting Luke up. Then, the tall blond saw someone that caught his eye.

With a raven hair, the boy was juggling between playing the bass and singing into the mic. It seemed the singer was already staring at Luke, and the blond reacted a little more shy than usual. His body swayed with their beat, and he tried avoiding eye contact while Calum resumed longing at him.

Michael looked back at Ashton and stuck his tongue. The drummer could only roll his eyes at his best friend. The song ended, but Ashton and Michael kept playing while Calum gawked at his crush. Luke smiled to himself because it was a good idea that he came out to see them. He especially liked the only guy in the band with black hair. Calum stepped into the crowd and was surprising not mauled down by anyone. The Kiwi stretched out his hand to Luke, and happily said, "I'm Calum."

"I'm-"

"Luke Hemmings."

"Yeah," Luke looked surprised, but he turned his attention to Michael and saw the bleach blond wink at him.  _Oh_ , Luke figured it out.

"Let's get to know each other in the future more often. Is that cool?"

"Yeah, totally," Luke grabbed Calum's hand and shook it tightly.

They both smiled and saw a potential relationship starting. Luke was going to like his new environment quite a lot for now on...

**Author's Note:**

> Do as you please with your time now that you are finished~ I hope you had a great day/night, and take care! Sorry it ended like that! I already changed how it was originally supposed to end like in the music video I was basing this off of. 
> 
> In the original ending I was planning: I was going to let Calum keep on singing and Luke just keeps dancing. The song ends, and they stare at each other really lovingly and flirty and the party goes on. The end. Just like in the music video.


End file.
